Pretty Rocks
Darmaland, Erongo, Namibia
November 26, 2013
There was a great spread for breakfast. The bacon I had was so delicious!
While we were driving to our first destination we saw a Yellow-Billed Hornbill (aka the flying banana), wild cat tracks and ostrich tracks (one small toe, one large toe and one nail)
Mwezi drove us to Twyfelfontein, meaning Doubtful Spring, first. Hermaus was our local guide. The South African that settled in this area from the 1940's until the 1960's eventually left because of the lack of a water supply. The doubtful spring should have been a huge tip off for him! In 1921 this site was discovered and in 2009 this site was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO; the first in Namibia Hermanus Explaining the Carvings.
Over 2,500 engravings have been discovered to date. We saw some carvings that were over 5,000 years old by the Sun Nomads or Bushmen. They used granite to carve drawings into the sand stone to illustrate where they have traveled, how to hunt and to teach their youth about the animals. We took the longer route, The Lion Route, and saw carvings of lions, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, ostrich, bustard, oryx, kudu, wildebeest, seals, penguins and flamingo (proof that they traveled as far as the coast, 100 Km away). The carvings were amazing! We have never seen anything like it before! There were two unique depictions of the giraffe and lion. The lion tail was raised to the sky and had five points, similarly, the giraffe had five horns on its head both indicating hands reaching for the Nomad's ancestors. Most of the scenes depicted stories of a shaman's vision of these animals in order to identify where the best hunting grounds were Famous Carvings.
While we were there, we also saw a black eagle flying overhead, a desert rat perched on a rock and a ground squirrel protecting her nest.
We later saw the aftermath of two volcanic activities with very different outcomes - Burnt Mountain looked like a pile of ash and Organ Pipe looked like church organ pipes of solid black vertical stones. The reason why these sites looked different is because the first site cooled very quickly after the eruption and the second was a much slower cooling process. The Organ Pipe rocks were up to 5 meters tall and were really neat formations.
The Living Museum was created for the Darma people to preserve their culture and teach their youth about their past. They showed us how they used to start fires with sticks, make pelts into clothing, make jewelery, make tools and weapons, and identified plants of the area and how their people used to use them for fire, healing, eating or drinking Organ Pipes. They also sang a few songs and danced for us. It was an interesting tour and I bought one of the bracelets that they had made with ostrich egg, porcupine needle and seeds.
We had a short break for lunch, then we headed back out with Mwezi to see the petrified forest. It was a long, hot ride, so I had a short nap! We went to the Namibia National Heritage site and were guided through the area by Anthonius. He took us on an 800 metre hike and showed us many examples of the petrified logs some up to 6m circumference and 37m long. The pine trees that are fossilized here were from Central Africa and they ended up here via a flood 280,000,000 years ago, were covered by minerals and earth that preserved them.
Anthonius also taught us a bit about Welwitschia, the national plant of Namibia. This plant is very rare and is also known as a living fossil because it can live longer than 2,000 years old Darma Village. The plant is either male or female and only has two leaves from the stem. It appears like it has many leaves because the wind and elements strip the leaves.
The wind had picked up, so we had a dusty drive back, but it gave us the opportunity to see the many different types of rock and sand formations - tabletop mountains that remind me of Nevada or Arizona, heaps of rocks that look like a giant created a huge stone pile, hills of crumbled rock that look like chocolate wafers crumbled and dumped in a big heap, mounds of pale yellow and red sand covered in lichen… The landscape is constantly changing! It also includes a view of the tallest mountain in Namibia, Brandberg at 2,573 m.
During our tours today we saw more livestock than wild animals (donkeys, goats and cows), so I am looking forward to seeing more wild animals in Etosha over the next few days.
We had some down time before dinner to cool off and relax. It is nice after a busy stay so far!
Pictures & VideosAnd a Dance NumberTheresa Normally Likes BeerNice Oasis for a NightcapOr updating the Blog
